Crocodiles spotted at city tin mine lagoon

PHUKET CITY: The Phuket Provincial Fisheries Office (PPFO) is warning the public to stay away from an abandoned tin mine on the south side of town, following reports by local residents that two or three crocodiles were spotted there yesterday morning.

Provincial officials are trying to track down and catch the dangerous reptiles, but thus far to no avail.

Aroon Kerdsom, Chief of the Phuket Provincial Office for Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (ODPM), told the Gazette that he visited the tin mine lagoon with Phuket Vice-Governor Worapoj Ratthasima soon after receiving the report.

“We stayed there until noon looking for them, but they never showed themselves so we went home,” he said.

All three crocs were described as at least one-meter in length, he added.

The PPFO, which has been ordered to catch the crocs, have been unable to spot them.

PPFO Chief Priro Suttaporn this afternoon told the Gazette that his staff spent all day yesterday and today looking for the them. The size of the lagoon and the crocodile’s notoriously effective ability to blend into the environment may be factors hindering the search, he said.

“It is the last tin mine on Soi Sansuk, covering about 10 rai of land. The water is deep. I have told local residents to stay away from the lagoon and to be especially careful not to let their children play there,” he said.

PPFO officials were to go to Koh Sireh this afternoon and ask fishermen there for special netted traps, which they plan to bait with chicken carcasses in the hope of catching the crocs, he said.

“We hope to catch them on land when they come up to dry themselves in the sun,” he said.

The owner of a crocodile farm in the area has already been questioned. He told the PPFO that it would be impossible for any but the smallest baby crocodiles to escape from their enclosure, which is surrounded by two concrete retaining walls.